Merlin's Return
by Fand0ml0ver
Summary: Morgana has been resurrected and Lord Voldemort is at large once again. The Old Religion does all it can do... it cries out to the only person who can save the World from two great evils... Merlin! Can he protect Harry Potter whilst defeating Morgana and Voldemort all the while keeping up appearances as a regular 5th year student at Hogwarts?
1. The Founder's Story

**Author's note- This is my first ever fanfiction so please dont hate it too much. Constructive criticism is always welcome as are any other comments or questions regarding this fic. I've seen many other people do these sorts of stories and this is just my own interpretation. Enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer- I don't own Merlin or Harry Potter. Those privileges belong to the BBC and J. .**

He had been alive for the best part of 1300 years. It wasn't fun. The problem was he could never tell anyone his true name because it caused too much of a fuss. Also, he could never get close to anyone because soon enough they noticed that he didn't age and it looked too suspicious; also he had to suffer living alone as everyone he cared about withered away while he remained youthful, untouched by age. Being alive for so long meant that he had gotten around and seen many ages and people pass, whether it was the Vikings, theNormans or the Anglo-Saxons; he'd seen them all.

One day he came across four remarkable people who wished to create a school for children with magic, so they didn't have to fear their powers. These people were Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw and Salazar Slytherin. Naturally, he loved the idea wondering why he hadn't come up with it sooner. However, when he had agreed to help them on their quest they simply laughed in his face asking what a young boy, who looked no older than 25, could do to help them. Granted, they were all extremely powerful; but they practised the new way of magic with wands and latin incantations which was no match for the Old Religion's magic which he possessed. He merely told them that he had the power to create wards and defence systems strong enough to last until the end of time. Once he had shown them a fraction of the powers he had, they all agreed that he would be allowed to help them complete their quest.

Soon, they too noticed that he hadn't aged at all in the 5 years they had known him. When asked about it he simply told them that they were mistaken, but he knew all too well that soon he would have to leave his new friends. Godric, Helga, Rowena and Salazar were the best friends he'd had in a very long time. He was seriously debating telling them the truth about himself. At the moment the name he went by was Marvin Amber because it was fairly similar to his real name but not enough that it would cause suspicion. Sometimes the looks they gave him made him wonder if they knew the truth, but it may have just been that they were wary of his immense power. If anyone were to figure it out he would've thought it would be Rowena as she was the most intuitive and she was insanely clever. The longer he stayed the more curious they got about him not aging. It had been 7 great years since they had befriended him, the school was complete, only a week away from opening, when he decided it was his time to leave.

He was sat against a tree, pondering whether he should say a heartfelt goodbye or just write them a letter and leave, when Godric came up and sat beside him. "You're leaving, aren't you." He said it as more of a statement than a question as if he already knew the answer. He just nodded unsure of what to say. "I understand" Godric said, "the others might not, but I do." "I'm sorry" he replied, suddenly feeling quite emotional, "I just can't stay in one place for very long. I need to keep moving." "I know" was all Godric said. He had an strange look in his eyes which looked highly suspicious, as if he might know the truth and was just being purposefully irritating. Godric stood up and left, but not before giving him a playful wink. He wondered if Godric Gryffindor was cleverer than he gave him credit for.

He decided to be a man, rather than just run away from his best friends in years, by telling them of his departure before it happened. All except for Godric looked extremely surprised and hurt when he told them. They asked why. He merely told them he had accomplished all that he had wanted and they could continue without him from now on. He also told them that he wanted no recognition for any of the work he had done to the school. He wanted his name to be put out of the all the books and he wanted to remain hidden. The girls cried and hugged him, once realising there was no changing his mind and the guys shook his hand. Deciding to give up on the formality of it they had a group hug before completing his wishes.

That night he left and they never saw him again after that.

He was awoken from his peaceful dream by a tremendous tremor coming from deep within the Earth. He could feel the Old Religion crying out to him to do something. The only problem was he had no idea what was wanted of him! Frantically, he search for the crystal of Neahtid; he had tried to keep as distanced as he could from the crystal after what it had shown him at previous times but desperate times call fro desperate measures.

What he saw made him realise that it was time for him to rejoin the Wizarding World.

It was time for Merlin's return.


	2. The Crystal's Story

**I don't own Merlin or Harry Potter... I wish I did though.**

He had obviously been asleep longer than he originally anticipated since he didn't recognise anyone from any of the images he was shown by the crystal. He was shown a war. A civil war between magical people; the good and the evil, the light and the dark. A man in a dark cloak they called 'Lord Voldemort' was leading a large army of followers including many destructive monsters and was battling an even larger army being lead by a man called Albus Dumbledore. Although Dumbledore was leading the army (most likely because he looked most powerful), there didn't seem to be one true leader of the good side.

Next, he saw a couple, James and Lily Potter, continue to defy Lord Voldemort and manage to stay alive. He later saw them have a small baby boy which they decided to called Harry, who was born on the 31st of July. The were finally happy and Voldemort seemed to have retreated for a short amount of time so everyone was happy, thinking they had finally won. However, Voldemort was away at the Malfoy Manor being told of a prophecy which spoke of his downfall!

"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies..."

He watched in the crystal as Voldemort realised that the prophecy must be talking about Harry Potter and that he would have to kill him before he got powerful enough to defeat him. He watched in horror and anguish as Peter Pettigrew, a former friend of the Potter's, sold their location out to the Dark Lord. And as Tom Riddle, as he was formerly known, strode up to the Potter's house, easily killing James and going through to a baby's room where Lily and Harry were hiding. He watched in awe at Lily as she protected Harry with everything that she had, until she tragically dropped to the floor like her husband. The Old Religion used her immense love for Harry to shield him from the killing curse and have it rebound onto the dark Lord himself, temporarily 'killing' him, or at least just getting rid of him for the time being, and leaving Harry only with a scar the shape of a lightning bolt.

The loss of his parents meant that the only family he could go to were the Dursley's, Lily's sister's family. They were absolutely attrocious towards Harry, basically treating him as a slave. He got no rewards for anything that he did, they verbally and physically abused him from a young age and they hardly fed him at all. It was appalling.

He saw Harry's journey through Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. His sorting into Gryffindor, him becoming friends with Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger, his success at shielding the Philosopher's Stone from the spirit form of Lord Voldemort.

He watched as Tom Riddle possessed Ginny Weasley, Ron's younger sister, into writing on the walls of Hogwarts with blood and eventually capturing her in the Chamber of Secrets. He saw Harry battle the Basilisk which had been put into the Chamber a thousand years prior, when he was helping with the construction of the school. The legends said that Salazar put the Basilisk in their to ward off muggleborns, unknown to the other founders. But the truth was that everyone, even him, had agreed that putting the Basilisk in the Chamber was a good defence system against any unwanted attacks.

He saw Harry find out about Sirius Black being his Godfather, after knowing that it wasn't really him who betrayed his parents, and saving him from Dementors, using the notoriously difficult corporeal patronus charm, and later, breaking him out of Azkaban (the wizarding prison).

He watched as Harry's name was picked mysteriously out of the Goblet of Fire, even though Harry hadn't put it in their. And he saw each challenge he had to face and how he brilliantly solved each problem.

What he then saw made him shiver... Voldemort had returned, killed Harry's friend Cedric, then battled Harry until he could escape with Cedric's body using the portkey, when Voldemort had been temporarily distracted. Voldmort was back. He assumed the crystal was finished since it had shown him why he was needed, but another scene began to play. He saw Voldemort ordering his followers (Death Eaters) to find an object that could raise the dead and bring immortality to whoever used it. His heart filled with dread as he knew what was happening. Voldemort wanted the Cup of Life. But who did he want to raise from the dead?

He knew why he was needed. Now he had to go to Hogwarts, disguised as a fifth year student in order to protect Harry from Voldemort, whilst stopping the Dark Lord from getting to the Cup of Life. That would have disastrous consequences!

It was going to be a tough year!


	3. The Letter's Story

**I own neither Merlin nor Harry Potter.**

Merlin was sat in his home contemplating how he would get accepted as a fifth year student into Hogwarts. He could either go to the headmaster as the powerful Emrys and demand he be let in, or he could simply write a letter and ask pretending to be an actual 15 year old... He chose the latter since he wanted to keep his cover up for as long as possible.

 ** _Dear Professor Dumbledore, Hea_ _dmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry,_**

 ** _I write to you to in hopes that you would be gracious enough as to let me join your prestigious school. The circumstances that bring me to ask this of you are unique and unfavourable. You see, my parents didn't want me to attend a school due to the religion of which they followed; this led to me being homeschooled. Sadly, around 2 years ago and within 6 months of eachother, they both passed away in tragic accidents. My uncle then took me in as his own and continued my education; however he was much older than my mother and he too perished just earlier this month, but from old age. This led me to write you this letter, as his as last wishes were for me to continue my education with you at Hogwarts. I believe I should join the fifth year as I am 15 years old._**

 ** _Thankyou you for your consideration and I completely understand if for any reason you cannot do as I ask of you, as it is a large request in such short notice._**

 ** _I look forward to hearing from you._**

 ** _MacKenzie Emrys_**

 ** _P.S. If you write my name on an envelope and send it off with an owl, I assure you it will find me easily enough._**

Once he had finished the letter he read it through a hundred times over and over before sending it to the Professor. He chose the name MacKenzie because he'd heard it around before and it sounded modern. He thought he could have people call him Mack for short, which he also liked the sound of. He went for Emrys because it technically was a last name he adopted from the Druids adn it was easy to remember for him since he had used it as his fake name since he left Camelot so it was sort of his tradition. He sent the letter on the 30th of July, hoping this would give the Professor enough tim to agree and reply to him.

It was only a week later when Professor Dumbledore replied!

 _ **Dear MacKenzie Emrys,**_

 _ **I would like to start off by saying that I am increadibly sorry for the grievances you have suffered recently. However, I was delighted to hear that you wish to join Hogwarts this year. We would be thrilled to have you as a student here. Since I know nothing about your schooling abilities, I hope you don't mind coming to the school in a week's time, on the 13th of August so I can test your abilities just to make sure you don't need any further tutoring and you are a capable fifth year student. If you need transporting to the school I can have someone come to your house and collect you if need be, but if you will be able to find your own way that is also fine (just be warned you aren't able to apparate into the school grounds). If I dont hear from you I will assume you can get your own way here.**_

 _ **I look forward to meeting you soon,**_

 _ **Albus Dumbledore**_

He was grinning madly as he read this letter from the Headmaster. He would be able to join the fifth year of Hogwarts and protect Harry Potter. But first he needed to go shopping.


	4. The Shopping Story

**Still don't own Merlin or Harry Potter. Enjoy!**

He went straight to Diagon Alley in order to find himself all of the necessarybooks and equipment that he would need for the year. He still had his trusted wand that he had kept since not long after the downfall of Camelot, since that was when magic users had resorted to using the sticks as the amount of Old Religion in the Earth had declined. His wand was rather special; it was made from the bark of a tree from the Land of the Blessed and its core was two dragon scales, one from each of his most trusted dragons, Kilgarrah and Aithusa. Kilgarrah had sadly died not long after the powerful forging of the wand due to old age, but Aithusa was still roaming the planet. After an argument they had around three hundred years ago, they had lost contact and Merlin hadn't heard from her since. He had tried to contact her through the telepathic bond which they shared but it had never worked, so he assumed she was too far away in the world to hear him and so he gave up. The wand depicted a large dragon breathing fire with a much smaller, what seemed to be a baby, dragon at his side and the flames circled and twisted up the length of the wand. He may have allowed his sentimentality to get away from him there but he didn't really care as the wand was beautiful and he loved it!

All he needed to buy was robes, a couple of books and and a nice new quill. It didn't take long and soon enough he had everything that he needed for the year ahead. All he had to do now was go to Hogwarts, convince Dumbledore he was trustworthy and not suspicious, while surviving whatever testing he was going to be put through.

 **A/N-sorry this update was really late. I think i'm going to try to update every weekend or sooner if possible but schedule has been packed recently. I know this chapter's really short and im hoping you'll stick with it and it will improve. Love you all xx**


	5. The Hogwarts Story

**I don't own Merlin or Harry Potter.**

Merlin apparated to Hogsmeade rather than the Hogwarts grounds themselves because he wanted to remain inconspicuous. He checked into a hotel room at the Three Broomsticks Inn so he wouldn't have to lug his suitcase around any longer, and then he headed off to meet with Professor Dumbledore to be tested.

Over his many years of immortality Merlin had grown bored, so to keep himself occupied from time to time he would enroll himself into Hogwarts; obviously far enough apart that no one would recognize him and he changed his first name each time so it could seem as if they were all descendants of each other. The different names he came up with weren't very imaginative, he just made sure they began with an M so he would be able to remember what he had chosen each time. By his third visit all the ghosts in Hogwarts were very suspicious of him as they remembered him vividly each time he returned and there is only so far "I just look look like my dad" will get you. They constantly asked him of his secret every time they got the chance but he refused to divulge anything, always saying "its not the right time".

He walked up the hill with the magnificent view of the castle of Hogwarts right in front of him. He stared openly in wonder at it. He was immensely proud and honored that he had helped the four founders to build the grand structure. Sometimes he wished that people knew of the things he had done for the world but he was happy that his four friends got to keep all the glory for themselves and that they destroyed all the evidence of him ever helping to build the school. It was better off that way. If he had any part of the limelight he would've had way too much attention and everyone would have questioned his inability to age and it would cause way too many problems than it solves.

He arrived at the giant wooden doors of the school and took a nervous breath in before reaching for the door handle. As he did so, something made him jump so much he felt as if his heart had skipped a beat. Just as he had touched the door handle the door was pulled open to reveal a rather startled Professor McGonagall.

"Who're you?" she asked.

"I'm Mackenzie Emrys, the new student. I've come for my appointment with Professor Dumbledore." Merlin replied politely.

"Very well", she said,"follow me".

So he followed her down a series of corridors, up a few flights of moving staircases and round a few corners until they finally got to their destination.

"Just follow these stairs to the room above. He's expecting you." She said strictly yet politely.

"Thank you, Professor." he replied

So he followed the staircase like she said until he reached an ancient looking wooden door. He knocked gently. A faint "come in" was heard. He anxiously opened the door to reveal a large circular room with a desk at the back; and sat at that desk was none other than Professor Dumbledore himself. Behind him, however, Merlin saw a portrait of the four founders, at the moment looking asleep. Before they could wake and notice him he cast a silent glamour charm with his eyes closed (so Dumbledore wouldn't suspect anything), so his four friends wouldn't recognize him.

"Ah Mackenzie, I'm glad you got here safely. Please come in and take a seat" he said pointing to a comfy looking armchair situated opposite him.

"Please call me Mack" Merlin said kindly.

Dumbledore smiled, "Of course, Mack. So before we get started I was just wondering if you'd allow me to ask you some questions about your life and education prior to writing to me."

Merlin nodded in apprehensive confirmation.

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled, "Great!" he said enthusiastically, "So why didn't you go to school before now? Your letter wasn't very clear."

"Well you see, its because of the religion that they both followed which said that children should be taught at home by their parents rather than at a school." He lied.

Dumbledore nodded but didn't seem to trust the answer entirely. "Okay! How far along in the syllabus do you think your homeschooling education has gotten you?"

"I believe I'm at that same standard as others in my year group, if not a bit further because my uncle Gaius took me on as his apprentice so I was constantly making potions and collecting rare herbs for him." Merlin replied in half honesty.

"Okay great. That's all I wanted to ask!" Dumbledore said cheerfully.

Merlin breathed a silent sigh of relief. He hated lying! Always had and always will. He was just glad it hadn't been a really intimidating interrogation.

"Right its now time to move onto your testing. Just to be sure you are at the same level as your peers and that you don't need any extra tutoring or to go down into the year below." But seeing the worried look o Merlin's face as he said that he quickly backtracked ,"no don't worry! I'm sure you'll do great!"

Merlin managed a weak smile.

"Okay! Let's get started!"


	6. The Examination's Story

"Okay Mack, so what you're going to be tested on first is Herbology, and then Charms, and then History of Magic, we will worry about some of your other tests later. And for these subjects you will be given an exam paper to answer. Now don't worry, you'll be great! Don't worry if you don't know the answers to any of them just leave that question and have another go when you're finished."

Throughout his instructions Merlin had been nodding his head, trying to act nervous but confident he could pull off getting slightly above averages scores without needing extra tutoring!

"Once you're finished just come to my desk and I'll give you your next task", Dumbledore said while showing Merlin to a small separate room with an exam table with three different exam papers on it.

"Okay thank you, Professor!" Merlin said genuinely.

"No worries. Good Luck!"

And so he began. He whizzed through the Herbology paper, having memorized all of them one thousand three hundred years ago whilst working for Gaius and having to collect nearly all of them everyday from the forest. He didn't know how long he was meant to spend on each paper but he had finished the Herbology paper, and was happy with the result, in around twenty minutes.

Then, he moved onto the Charms paper; this consisted of questions asking what spells to use in different scenarios, which was easy enough since he had invented most of them himself. Not that anyone knew that. People weren't kidding when they said he had completely changed the way magic users' thought and used their magic, as he had created nearly everything they used on a daily basis. The paper also consisted of questions asking what the English translation of the Latin spells were. This was slightly harder for him as his first language was Old English when using spells so he didn't have as much experience using Latin spells. Obviously, being 'Emrys' had its perks and over the years he had adapted the way he used his magic so he could fit in with the modern day magic users. It hadn't taken too long for him to learn all of their Latin spells and create hundreds of new ones! This paper took him a mere thirty minutes.

The problem with the papers was that they didn't give him a vague time preference for completing it, so he didn't know what was good or bad, which meant he could've been very far ahead or behind the average time taken. This meant it was very hard for him to decide how long to take in order for him to not be given tutoring and to not be looked at suspiciously. He decided to just go through the papers at a fairly steady pace. Unknown to him, his stead pace was actually far ahead of the national average!

He ended up finishing the Charms paper in thirty minutes, about half of the average.

His final written exam was in History of Magic. This was probably the easiest paper for him, seeing as he had lived through it. The paper started with questions from when the modern magic had originated and finished with questions from recent times. Basically, the paper could've been an autobiography of his life! Whilst working his way through the paper, Merlin had a small smile playing at his lips as he relived some of the best parts of his life.

Once again he finished the paper in a rather impressive twenty minutes, even though he thought he had slowed himself a bit and made sure to alter his answers slightly so Dumbledore wouldn't be too suspicious of his intellect.

After flicking through the papers for a final time to make sure he was happy with them he took them to Professor Dumbledore so he could check over them and give him his next next task.

He walking out of the large cupboard and over to Dumbledore's desk.

"ugh, Sir? I've finished." He said hesitantly.

Dumbledore raised his eyebrows in what looked like surprise but quickly masked it until he only had a twinkle in his eyes.

"Already?" he asked. This made Merlin's heart rate speed up as he realized he may have gone a bit too quickly as he was only meant to be gong into fifth year. He panicked in his head hoping Dumbledore wouldn't question it too much.

"Errrm... I think so." He replied nervously.

"Okay, great! Let's move on then." He stood up from his desk and led Merlin to a corner of the room where a table with various objects had been set up.

"So, the subject you will be tested on next is Transfiguration. And what you're going to need to do for that is transform these objects into whatever I tell you to. Does that sound okay?" He asked.

Merlin nodded nervously. He needed to make sure he dulled down his abilities but not too much as to not be given extra lessons. It was too much to think about at one point. It was very stressful.

This test went on for about fifteen minutes with Dumbledore telling him to turn a saucer into a flowerpot, a garden gnome into a snail and in reverse, the table into a mirror and so on. Merlin made sure to pronounce some of the spells slightly incorrectly but not enough to completely get the spell wrong, he still made sure to turn the objects into whatever Dumbledore had asked for.

"Okay, that'll do! How do you think you did?" he asked.

"Alright I guess." he replied humbly.

Dumbledore nodded mysteriously, not giving Merlin any insight into how he had really done so far.

"So for your final tests, which will be Potions and Defense Against the Dark Arts, I have called a member of staff who will inform you further on what you will have to do. I wish I could do it myself, but as you probably assumed I still have a lot to do before the school term starts. But I will see you once you have completed the final stages of your exams to discuss things further."

Merlin simply nodded.

A few seconds later, there was a knock on the door and a middle aged man with a crooked nose and greasy black hair walked through the door. He instantly recognized him from the crystal's images as Severus Snape, the double agent for Dumbledore.

"Ah Severus, would you mind taking Mackenzie here for his final testings?" he asked.

Snape nodded. "Come boy." he said and walked out the door.

"Thank you Professor," he turned and said to Dumbledore before following Professor Snape out of the office.


	7. The Almost Disaster Story

**Hey guys thanks for all the lovely reviews! Sorry I'm really bad at having a schedule to write these xx Enjoy!**

Merlin followed Professor Snape out of the office and down several flights of stairs until they reached what he guessed to be the lowest floor since it had the lowest temperature. He followed him to what seemed to be his office as he knew he was the Potion's Professor and his room reminded him of Gaius' chambers from back in Camelot. When they entered the room he got a great sense of nostalgia which took him right back to over a thousand years ago to his wonderful yet trying time in Camelot with Gaius and everyone else. He was brought back to the present when he realized Snape was talking to him.

"Sorry, Sir. What were you saying?" Upon seeing Snape's face grow furious as he was talking he quickly backtracked to explain himself, "well, you see, it's just that this room reminded me of my late uncle so I started having a kind of flashback when I came in here." Snape began to look slightly more sympathetic... only slightly!

"Okay, then I guess I shall have to repeat myself." Snape said sternly. "To be tested for Potions you're going to have to make a Calming Draught. There are some instructions on the board to help you and ingredients in the cupboards. You have as long as it takes you to finish. Begin." He instructed.

Merlin straight away went to the cupboard full of all sorts of different potion ingredients. He instantly knew this would be one of his favorite subjects, he was fascinated with potions, loved them, and had invented half of them so he knew pretty much all there was to know about them, therefore this was the easiest test he had done so far! He didn't have to look at the board at all either because he had made this potion at least once a week back in Camelot for Gaius' patients so he knew the instructions backwards.

He made the potion easily enough with what he considered to be a good result in around 15 minutes.

"Sir?" He asked.

Professor Snape looked up annoyed. "What? I've given you everything you need to make the potion so get on with it." He said rudely.

"I know. Its just that I've finished." He told him confidently.

Snape had a look of complete surprise on his face. It only lasted a moment before he covered it up so well that Merlin couldn't be sure if it was there in the first place.

He got up from behind his desk and stalked up to where Merlin had been working. He dipped his finger in it, licked it, stirred the potion, all probably looking for signs of mistake or error in his work. When he found none the look of utter confusion was once again present on his face.

"Mhmh. Well then, onto your next task." Snape went over to a bookshelf and picked a book from it. Unbeknownst to Merlin he ripped a page from a N.E.W.T book and put it into the 5th year book. He then gave this page to Merlin and told him to make it.

It was a Blood Replenishing potion. Once again, one that Merlin had made many a time back in Camelot so he knew how it was done.

This time Snape paid much more attention to the mysterious young boy. He noticed that not once did he actually look in the book for ingredients or instructions, he just got straight on with it. Snape had never seen anything like it. The boy was a natural and was brewing the potion faster than any advanced N.E.W.T student could and perhaps even rivaled the Professor himself.

He noticed the boy had stopped working and was now just admiring his work. He got up to go and take a look at it. Unsurprisingly, it was perfect. He decided to stop playing innocent with him and get questioning.

"How did you make it so perfectly, so fast?" He asked.

"What? I didn't make it fast!" replied Merlin. To be honest he thought he had reigned back the pace in order to fit in. Apparently, it hadn't been enough.

"Are you saying you could've made it quicker?" He asked dubiously.

"No! Of course not. I'm just saying I thought I was making it at a steady pace since I wasn't that confident in making it."

"We both know that's a lie."

Merlin gulped nervously, scared that Snape was going to catch onto him.

He moved on to the next test though, to his surprise and delight. "Next is Defense Against the Dark Arts. What Professor Dumbledore and I decided we would do to test you is have you battle me. Obviously no serious harm will be done. You can use any defensive spells you know and I will block them and attack with only spells from the syllabus."

All the while Merlin stared at him in complete shock. He couldn't battle a teacher! What if he accidentally lost control and used a spell from the Old Religion? That could jeopardize his whole mission! He hadn't had a duel in the modern magic for centuries, he was really out of practice!

"Don't worry, you'll be fine." Snape said trying to sound reassuring.

Merlin just gave him a shaky smile in return.

"Okay. I'm ready." He said trying to sound a bit confident.

Snape nodded and walked to the other end of the classroom, he waved his wand and all the desks and chairs moved themselves to the walls so they wouldn't get in the way of the duel.

Merlin gulped nervously as he bowed to Snape and the gestured was returned. He hoped nothing would ruin his chances of earning the headmaster's and everyone else's trust.

Snape was obviously waiting for him to make the first move so he swallowed away his fear and fired his first spell at the Professor.

"Expelliarmus!" Merlin yelled.

Snape easily blocked it. "Petrificus Totalus!" he returned.

Merlin wordlessly put up a shield to protect himself. "Reducto!" he shouted, starting to work his way into harder spells.

The duel continued for around five minutes and it was easy to see that Snape was growing more angry and frustrated as the time went on that he couldn't defeat a mere fifteen year old still hadn't broken a sweat and felt that he could continue this forever, glad that as soon as they had started he remembered leagues of modern spells that he could use in a duel.

Suddenly, something in the Professor snapped and all of his spells got a lot fiercer and harder and he was using spells that definitely weren't in the fifth year syllabus.

Merlin watched in horror as the Professor spoke two words that should never come from a teacher's lips.

"Avada Kedavra."

Merlin knew he wouldn't be able to jump out of the way in time so he had to do something so he wouldn't be hit with the unforgivable curse.

He dropped his wand in horror as the spell seemed to race towards him and he used his Old Magic to protect himself. Obviously, he was Merlin so he didn't need a spell, his eyes flashed golden and he put his hand up. A blue force field appeared around him and absorbed the killing curse. HE breathed a sigh of relief but then backtracked as he realized he had just used Old Magic in front of the Professor.

Professor Snape had a look of sheer horror on his face as he realized he had just tried to kill a student. Whatever he had done to protect himself, even though it should've been impossible, it was incredibly powerful and impressive.

"Did you just try to kill me?!" Merlin asked angrily in shock.

"The question is what did you just do to protect yourself?" he replied trying to get the attention away from himself.

"No! Don't try to turn it around on me, I could get you fired and sent to prison for that!" Snape could see that the boy wasn't scared that he had just trid to be killed, he was scared that the Professor would ask more about the spell he had used to save himself.

"I won't tell if you don't." Snape said hurriedly. It was a poor attempt but he thought it might just work.

Merlin looked at him in shock!

"I think we better get back to Professor Dumbledore." Merlin said quietly.

And just like that he walked out of the room and back to the headmaster's office, leaving Professor Snape staring after him completely at a loss of what to do.

All he could do was follow the boy. So that's what he did.


	8. The Portrait's Story

**Hey guys! I just want to say a massive thanks to everyone who reviewed! It really means a lot and makes my day! This chapter is inspired by a chapter from 'Destiny's Calling' by I'm busy saving the world. Enjoy! xx**

Merlin rushed out of the dungeons and back the way they came down. He tried to look like he knew where he was gong but in reality he was making it up as they walked and hoping for the best. Soon enough, Professor Snape caught up with him and, much to his relief, took the lead back to the Headmaster's office. He was having an argument with himself in his head about whether or not to confront the professor about what had happened during his evaluation. Snape obviously didn't want him to tell Dumbledore that he had tried to kill him as much as he didn't want Snape to tell him of the ancient and powerful magic he had used to stop it.

They reached the entrance to the office. "Just to be clear, we're not mentioning what happened back there, right?" He asked.

"No. We are not." Snape replied tersely. And with that he knocked and opened the door to the Headmaster. Merlin was sure that this wasn't going to be the last time that he and Professor Snape spoke of this, but for now he decided to let it go and worry about it at another time.

As they walked in, the Headmaster looked up from his desk and smiled at them.

"Ah. I trust that all went well." They glanced at each other before answering.

"Yes, Mr Emrys passed all the tests he did with flying colors." At that, Merlin inwardly smiled. He could tell Snape was trying to be extra nice just to make sure he wouldn't tell anyone that he had tried to kill one of his students.

"Great! Thank you Severus, you may go."

"Before I do could I have a quick word?" Snape asked the Headmaster.

"Of course, let me just chat to Mackenzie quickly beforehand. Maybe you could wait outside for a minute?" He told the professor.

Snape nodded and walked out from the office leaving Merlin alone with Dumbledore.

Dumbledore smiled at him. "Do you mind if I just ask you a quick question?" He asked, but it sounded more like a statement so he knew that he was going to ask anyway.

"Of course" Merlin replied.

"In your letter to me you stated that your parents didn't want you going to school because of the religion they followed. Has that religion been passed down though your family or did it start with your parents?" He asked him.

"I think its been going on quite a long way back in my family."

"Okay. Then answer me this. When i looked in the records for your family name, how come about a dozen entries to Hogwarts came up?"

This had Merlin cursing himself. Apparently he hadn't thought it all the way through when he stated it was because of religion that he hadn't been to school.

"I'm not really sure. I know that my parents never came here, nor their parents. So it must just be a side of the family that I'm not familiar with." he answered. Luckily, the Headmaster seemed to buy into it.

"Of course," was all he said, "Well I guess I better go and see what Professor Snape wants." And with that he left the room.

Merlin knew that Professor Snape wanted to talk about him, so he guessed it would take a little while.

He looked up at the portrait of the founders. The glamour charm from earlier was still on him, which made sure only the four founders didn't recognize him. At the moment the founders appeared to be asleep so he removed and charm and decided to reveal himself to them.

"Oi, you lot, wake up!" He loudly whispered at the portrait.

They slowly awoke from their slumber, but as soon as they saw him they were up like a flash.

"Marvin? Is that you?" Helga asked.

"Yes, my friends. Its me." he told them.

Suddenly they all bombarded him with questions. That is, all except for Godric, who was staring at him with what seemed to be pity and understanding.

Merlin ignored their attempts to question him about how he had stayed alive all these years, he remained looking at Godric. He had always suspected that he had known but now he was certain.

"You know, don't you?" He asked him quietly. This stopped the bombard of questions from the other three.

Godric nodded lightly. All his friends turned on him.

"You knew his secret all this time?"

"How come you never told us?"

Merlin and Godric remained silent all the while staring at the other.

The remaining founders soon quieted when they realized none of their questions would be directly answered.

"Hello Merlin." Godric said, breaking the silence.

They gasped loudly, all looking slightly ill or faint.

"Hello Godric. Hello Rowena, Helga and Salazar."

"How come you never told us?" Helga asked, looking the most betrayed of all of them.

"I was a coward. My whole life apart from in Camelot I've had to hide my true name and make up a fake identity just to live a vaguely normal life. I got used to hiding it. I should've told you guys. I know you wouldn't have judged me or treated me too differently. I am sorry, my friends."

This made them all more sympathetic as they could understand where he was coming from. They knew him well enough to know how much he hated secrets and the fact that he had to keep such a large one hidden all his life must have been truly awful for him.

"I'm sorry. It must have been awful for you. We didn't think." Rowena said to him.

"No. Don't be sorry. It's my fault I should have told you. We were all great friends for over five years, and still I was too afraid to tell anyone."

"We completely understand," said Helga, "but was there anyone that did know?"

They all turned to him intrigued with the question.

"Uhh yeah... at the time two people knew but now only one person knows who I am." he said sadly.

"That's awful!" they all exclaimed.

"No, I'm fine with it. I've gotten used to using a fake identity!" he told them.

"That doesn't make it okay." Rowena said sternly.

"Look, it doesn't matter. I'm here for a reason this time and not just to free myself of boredom. So at this moment in time I really couldn't care less about people knowing who I really am. Not keen on the attention." he said seriously.

"What do you mean 'this time'?" Salazar asked, finally piping up into the conversation.

"Well..." he said awkwardly, "this is like the dozenth time I've come to Hogwarts over the years. I don't know how we never crossed paths really."

The more he talked the angrier they all looked!

"WHAT?" They screamed! He instantly winced.

"I'm sorry but we can't worry about that now! There are more important things going on."

"Like what?" Rowena asked worriedly.

"Well I can scry and see a bit into the future in this crystal I retrieved from the Crystal Cave and it showed me that Voldemort has returned to his body and is now hell bent on destroying everyone."

There eyes all widened as they heard what he was saying. They all knew how dangerous he was.

"It gets worse." He said morbidly.

"How could it get much worse?" Godric asked him nervously.

"I think Morgana's coming back." he said swiftly, trying to be as quick and painless as possible.

They all looked at him with new determination as they realized the severity of the situation they were in.

"Oh my gosh." Helga whispered.

"Were all doomed."

"How can you be sure?"

"Well, in the crystal I saw Morgana's face after seeing Voldemort return from the dead, so obviously she's tying to do something incredibly dangerous and dodgy. She's never been one for death." Merlin told them.

When Dumbledore and Snape came back in they were shocked to see the new shy boy talking avidly to the four founders of Hogwarts, who usually liked to stay quiet to themselves.

They were all laughing together genuinely seeming to find it hard to breathe for laughing so much.

"And then I walked in and he had the ears of an ass!" they all exploded into laughter again at that. " Wait for it, wait for it..." Mack told them trying to get his breath back. " I asked him who had done that to him and guess what?" The founders all had smiles on their faces as they waited in excited anticipation for the end of the story. "He brayed at me!" Mack said before instantly laughing. They founders looked at each other, as if daring the others to laugh first, before they all screamed with laughter and couldn't stop for some time. By the time Dumbledore got their attention they all had tears of laughter running down their faces as they tried to control their delight.

"May I ask what is going on here?" Dumbledore asked them.

"I was just talking to this amazing portrait of the four founders. They really are remarkable." He said giving them a playful wink.

They all smiled widely at him.

Dumbledore was genuinely shocked. He had never seen the founders act as they were with anyone before.

"Yes they are indeed. I just had never seen them act this way around anyone before so it surprised me!"

"Oh, we just got talking and yeah..." he said.

"Okay well moving on," Snape said deciding to talk to the boy later.

"Yes, yes, of course", Dumbledore quickly reminded himself, "well first off, lets talk about your results and then we'll go on to sort you into your house!"


	9. The Intriguing Story

**Still don't own Merlin or Harry Potter!**

 **Enjoy! x**

"So, Severus, what did you want to talk to me about?" Dumbledore asked his friend and colleague.

"Its about the boy, Mackenzie. He seems to know more than he's letting on. He obviously wants to seem less than he is but for reasons unknown."

"What's happened to make you think this?"

Making sure not to mention he had tried to kill the young boy he told the Headmaster, "he completed his potion task in a time that would rival even my best. Once I noticed this, I gave him a potion to make from a N.E.W.T book, which I disguised to make it seem as though it was a fifth year potion, and once again he completed the advanced potion quicker than any of the top N.E.W.T students could've completed it!"

"This is most interesting. I will see what I can inquire from him." Dumbledore said completely at a loss of what else to say.

The boy was a complete mystery to him. All the tests he had done, Dumbledore had marked and assessed and he had excelled in all elements of the syllabus. Dumbledore had never seen anything like it!

"I think we need to keep a close eye on him." He said, and they turned to go back into his office.

What they walked in on completely flabbergasted him! And by the similar look on Professor Snape's face, he could tell he was also wondering what on Earth was going on!

The young mysterious boy was chatting leisurely to and laughing with the portrait of the legendary four founders. They usually sat in their chairs pretending to be asleep while secretly listening in to conversation or they really were asleep or they just kept quiet and to themselves.

It was completely bizarre to watch them easily converse with the boy, as if the five of them had been the best of friends for many years.

"He brayed at me!" was what Mackenzie had said to them before they all erupted in hysterical laughter and it was quite a while before they could calm down and that was when Dumbledore managed to get their attention.

"May I ask what is going on here?" Dumbledore asked them.

"I was just talking to this amazing portrait of the four founders. They really are remarkable." He said giving them a playful wink.

They all smiled widely at him.

Dumbledore was genuinely shocked. He had never seen the founders act as they were with anyone before.

"Yes they are indeed. I just had never seen them act this way around anyone before so it surprised me!"

"Oh, we just got talking and yeah..." he said.

"Okay well moving on," Snape said deciding to talk to the boy later.

"Yes, yes, of course", Dumbledore quickly reminded himself, "well first off, lets talk about your results and then we'll go on to sort you into your house!"

"Okay sounds good." Merlin said to the Professor.

"I wont beat around the bush. Your results were spectacular and you excelled in all areas of all the subjects you were tested on." he said, carefully and closely watching Mackenzie's expression. He noticed that the boy looked worried for a second before expertly covering up his emotions with a well practiced mask.

"This means you will need no extra tutoring or anything like that, however I am worried that the classes in fifth year will be too easy for you, based on these results."

"Oh no, don't worry about that, there's still lots of things I have yet to learn and that I am really looking forward to learning this year!" Merlin said enthusiastically.

"Okay, well for the time being we'll see how you go but if I find out you're not being challenged enough I will have to do something about it."

"Yeah I completely understand."

"Okay great let's move on to your sorting. As you probably know, there are four houses that you have the chance of being sorted in to based on your characteristics. There is Gryffindor for the brave, Hufflepuff for the loyal, Ravenclaw for the wise and Slytherin for the cunning. You will be sorted by the Sorting Hat who will look into your mind and memories in order to decide where you should be placed."

He took an old dusty looking hat off of a shelf and brought it over to where Merlin had been told to sit and he put it on his head.

"Well, well, if it isn't the great Merlin Emrys. Come back to Hogwarts again just to pass the time have we?" the hat boldly asked him in his thoughts.

"No actually, this time i am on a mission for the Old Religion. So if you could just sort me I'll be on my way." Merlin replied to the hat.

"You know I can't sort you! You're the embodiment of magic itself!"

"Well then we've come to a bit of a standstill haven't we."

"You'll have to pick a house for yourself."

"Wow you really haven't gotten any more helpful over the years have you? Well since my mission is to protect Harry Potter, I guess it'll have to be Gryffindor please." he told the hat politely.

"Okay then GRYFFINDOR IT IS!" the hat shouted, making sure the last bit was out loud.

Just as the hat was being taken off his head he heard it whisper "good luck Emrys" to him before Dumbledore put the hat away on the shelf again and smiled at him.

"Welcome to Gryffindor Mack!" He said to him happily, glad that it meant he would be able to have Professor McGonagall keep a close eye on him.

"Thanks Professor!" he smiled widely.

"Now that that's done you are free to go! But first I wanted to ask you who you are staying with at the moment."

"No one at the moment because since my uncle died I haven'y had anyone able to look after me so I've been living in my uncle's house alone."

"Well we can't have that! I'd like to suggest that you stay with the Weasley's until the school term starts. They are a very nice and friendly family and you will at least know someone before school starts. And since the children are all in Gryffindor it will be good for you to make some friends before school!" Dumbledore started waffling in hopes that the boy would agree to his idea.

"I don't know Professor. I'm not great at making friends!" he said nervously.

"Nonsense! You will be fine. What do you say?"

Merlin sat there thinking for a while. He knew that if he said yes Dumbledore would trust him more but he didn't know if he'd be able to be around that whole family without doing something stupid.

"Okay, I guess it would be alright, I just need to pack my things first!" he told the delighted Professor.

Dumbledore's smile just grew and grew in response. As much as he really did want the young boy to make some friends before the school term began the real reason he was so glad he had agreed was because he knew there was something off about him so he could tell Molly to keep an eye on him.

"Great Now how will you get there?" he asked mostly to himself. "Ah, Severus, will you accompany Mackenzie here to his home and when he has finished packing I want you to bring him back here but send his belongings along to the Burrow."

All the while Snape's face grew more serious with dread and anticipation about being around the boy alone again, but he also felt a slight glee about possibly being able to question him more.

"Of course Headmaster." he said monotonously.

He would find out this boy's secrets if it was the last thing he did.

And on that thought Dumbledore lent him the power and they apparated away.


	10. The Suspicious Story

They arrived at Merlin's home and Snape was happily surprised that the apparition hadn't had a nauseating effect on the young boy as it normally would for children of his age. He took a moment to survey his surroundings of the student's house, well it seemed to have more of a cottage feel to it. The place was warm and cosy and Snape could see why the boy was reluctant to leave it for the Weasley's. Considering the fact the boy came across as a fairly normal teenager, the Professor was surprised to see a lack of entertainment in the household. It made him wonder what the boy did during all the free time he would have had due to not having attended school.

The realization that the boy was talking to him brought him out of his thoughts.

"Umm okay, so if you just want to make yourself comfortable, I'll go and pack my bags. There are magazines and newspapers and stuff if you like that kind of thing." He said awkwardly.

Snape smiled at him, uncharacteristically nicely, "Thanks, I'll just wait in here then. It would really help me if you were no longer than half an hour because I want to get back to school as I still have a lot of preparations that need doing before the school term starts."

"Yeah of course!" he replied quickly,"I don't have a lot of things to take." And with that he left the room to go and pack.

As soon as he had exited the room, Snape snapped into action determined to find something that would give him a hint into what the boy was hiding.

He began looking through drawers and cupboards and anywhere and everywhere else. He began to get frustrated when he couldn't find anything of importance. All he found were magic books and a few souvenirs from various places. However, had Snape looked in those magic books he would've discovered something incredibly interesting!

He came to the conclusion that anything with significance would be in his bedroom. But since he was in there packing, the Professor had no insight into his life and no secrets had been revealed!

He knew it was bad to be snooping around a student's house, but after what had happened in his classroom he knew something was up. No one should be able to stop that spell, it was notorious for being unstoppable. So the fact that someone had stopped it, and that someone was a fifth year student was insane and impossible.

After his searches came up unsuccessful, he decided he would just wait for the boy to finish and he would have to keep an eye on him at the school.

Merlin finished packing what little he had in around twenty minutes. He readied himself and walked back out into the lounge to meet the Professor to go back to Hogwarts.

"I'm ready, Sir." he announced while putting his backpack on.

"You can't have fitted a lot in that small bag, where is the rest of your things?" he asked with suspicion.

"I travel light."

"Okay then. Let's get going. As I said before we can't apparate inside of the school grounds so I'll have to drop us in Hogsmeade and we can walk up to the school."

Merlin just nodded in confirmation. So off they went.

* * *

When they arrived in Hogsmeade Professor Snape seemed more irked by the apparition than Merlin did. As soon as they appeared in the village Merlin was on his way up the hill to the school, whereas Snape needed a few seconds to steady himself before he could walk.

This confused the Professor as normally, going from the Muggle world to the Wizarding world through apparition caused even the best wizards to feel a bit queasy but a young boy seemed to handle it without any issues.

They walked in silence up the hill. Merlin could easily see that every once in a while Snape would steal an uneasy glance at him. He knew that he was incredibly suspicious of him and with good reason but he hoped he wouldn't have to tell him who he was too early in the school year. He preferably wanted to wait until at least Morgana came back to reveal his biggest secret to anyone. He had many suspicions about when Morgana was going to return and if he was correct he didn't have much time to gain the trust of Harry and his friends before it happened and his secret revealed.

He also hoped that the return of Morgana also meant the return of Arthur. If he had to face Morgana without Arthur at his side he didn't know how he would deal with it. He would probably lose against her and she would take over the world and everything would just go very badly. But he didn't really like to think about that.

He just wanted to wait and not think about anything like that any more than necessary.

Before he knew it they were at the top of the hill and entering the school.

"Right, Mack, listen. I know something is up about you and your sudden appearance now and especially with you being able to stop the killing curse. I just want to let you know that if you don't tell me what you're doing here and who you are, I will make it my life's mission to find out everything about you whether you like it or not." Snape said deadly seriously.

"Okay, fair enough. But I want you to know that if and when I tell you anything about myself, because even if you find little clues about me you will ever be able to connect the dots, no offence, you will not tell anyone about it otherwise I'll tell someone that you tried to kill me earlier. I don't want to ruin your career, I really don't, but if you get in my way then that's what will happen."

And with that he walked away from the Professor in the direction of Dumbledore's office without looking back. Leaving Professor Snape to stare after him in complete shock.


	11. The Weasley Story

**Hello my amazing readers! I'm really sorry about my lack of an update schedule but recently I've been really busy with exams coming up and stuff like that! anyways i hope you like the chapter and hopefully they will be a bit longer so the story can really start to pick up! x**

Snape decided that instead of catching the mysterious boy up he would just remain behind him in the journey to the Headmaster's office. He really didn't know what to make of anything anymore. The boy's rant at him hadn't given anything away apart from the fact that he did indeed have a secret that he was keeping from everyone. He could tell Professor Dumbledore and let him decide what to do but Mack made a good point, the boy was clever and would straight away know if anyone other than himself were acting suspiciously toward him and wouldn't hesitate to tell someone about the accidental attempt on his life. No, he would keep this mystery to himself and when he figured out what was happening he could then decide what he needed to do. If the boy told him, or he figured out, that he was here for any reason other than learning or helping to do something, then he would go to Dumbledore without a second thought, even if it meant losing his job.

What scared the Professor more than he cared to admit was that the boy seemed to know everything about everyone even though no one knew anything about him. It seriously unnerved the Potions teacher.

He was caught up with his own thoughts all the way until they arrived at the office door. As was Merlin.

He knew he shouldn't have said what he did to the Professor but he couldn't help himself and Snape needed to know where he stood. He couldn't afford to constantly be worried about whether or not the Professor was going to rat him out to the Headmaster. He desperately needed to be able to stay in Hogwarts, at least until Morgana's return and ensuring the professor's secrecy was the way to go in short notice.

Once they arrived at the office Professor Dumbledore was already there ready and waiting for them. He claimed that he'd finished most of his paperwork so was free to wait. There was a moment of awkward silence before Dumbledore announced that it was time for Merlin to go and meet the Weasleys. It was decided that Professor Dumbledore would transport Merlin there as Snape had preparations for the school year to do.

* * *

When Merlin reappeared after apparition he found himself in a bog about two-hundred meters from a rusty, old looking shack. The dwelling was narrow but tall and looked very run down and as if it had been very badly beaten up. It looked as though the only thing holding it together was magic. Which it probably was.

The other thing Merlin noticed was that Dumbledore wasn't with him. His bag was next to him but Dumbledore was not. He must have thought he was capable of introducing himself. He sure hoped Mrs Weasley had been informed of his untimely arrival, otherwise Merlin would be awkwardly welcomed maybe, if not ushered out.

Merlin picked up his bag and sullenly walked out of the muddy bog and towards the house. He quickly and easily dried and cleaned himself up with a simple spell as to make himself presentable to be introduced.

Quickly enough, he arrived at the door of the Weasley's home. Suddenly, he found himself to be quite nervous and jittery. To be honest he hated meeting new people, it made him anxious. It was probably because he knew he could never be permanent friends with them because of who he was. And that made meeting new people hard to stomach.

Collecting himself he knocked 3 times on the wooden door. He could hear shouting coming from inside and shuffling behind the door. The door was opened to reveal a short woman with dulling red hair, from age, who looked to be very friendly in a motherly sort of fashion.

"Oh hi there! You must be Mackenzie! Dumbledore told me you were coming. I'm Molly Weasley, you can call me Molly!" she said cheerily.

"Yeah, I'm Mackenzie but everyone just calls me Mack. I just want to thank you for allowing me to stay in your home and take up your space until school starts." he said politely.

"Oh its absolutely no problem deary!"

She opened the door wider to usher him inside to meet everyone.

"Everyone is in the kitchen waiting for you because I told them you were coming and to be nice." She said with a smirk.

They got to the kitchen and the first thing Merlin noticed was the six pairs of eyes staring straight at him, analyzing his every move.

* * *

He waved awkwardly at everyone, feeling very vulnerable. Molly walked in not too soon after and began the introductions.

"Right, everyone this is Mackenzie. Mackenzie this is Arthur, Fred, George, Ron, Ginny and Hermione." She said while pointing to each individual. As the names were read out each person gave a slight wave to make sure Merlin knew who each person was. Arthur was obviously the father of the bunch and seemed fairly laid back and kind. Fred and George were easily twins who had a very mischievous glint in their eyes; Merlin could tell they were quite the pranksters. Ginny looked to be the youngest of the group and was the only Weasley child to be female, which made Merlin feel quite sorry for her.

Ron and Hermione. When he saw them he instantly recognized them from the visions he'd seen the the crystal. They were Harry Potter's best friends. Ron kindly smiled at him whereas Hermione also smiled but seemed the most suspicious, of everyone, about him. He knew she was incredibly bright but he quickly realized this meant she would be very perceptive and see through many of his lies. He would have to look out for her, but he hoped they would all become fast friends.

"Hey," he said with a smile, "Mrs Weasley I told you to call me Mack," he explained with a jokingly exasperated tone.

"I know dear, but I also told you to call me Molly" she replied with a smirk.

Merlin decided to turn to the crowd, "please call me Mack." And they all nodded. He smiled at everyone making them smile in return, it was contagious.

"If its okay with you, you'll be sharing a room with Ron," Mrs Weasley told him.

"Of course, I just hope that's okay with you, Ron!" Merlin told them.

"Yeah course!" Ron said readily. "I'll show you up there now!" He stood up and walked upstairs expecting Merlin to follow him.

"See you guys in a bit, and thanks again for your hospitality." He picked up his bag and followed Ron up to their room.

* * *

"What do you think of him?" Molly Weasley asked her family and Hermione.

"He seems very nice. Well spoken as well," Mr Weasley said.

Everyone nodded in agreement.

"What do we know about him?" asked Hermione.

"Not a lot. Dumbledore told me that he's an exchange student who's in your year at Hogwarts who was previously home-schooled. That's about it really." Hermione narrowed her eyes in suspicion.

"Well I think there's something off about him." Hermione stated.

"You're just saying that 'cause you think he's fit." Ginny announced.

Hermione blushed a bright scarlet, "No, i'm not Ginny. I genuinely think there's something not right about him."

"Well i think he's perfectly nice."

* * *

"Okay this is our room." Ron said before opening a wooden door to greet a small but cosy room with a single bed and a mattress on the floor. "I know its knot much but it's enough."

"Its perfect," Merlin said with a big smile on his face, "thank you for letting me stay in your room, i hope its not too much to ask."

"Not at all" Ron assured him, "you can take my bed and i'll take the mattress."

"Absolutely not! That's way too much to ask! I can't ask you to give up your bed for me. I shall take the mattress." Merlin gushed.

"Nah. Mom would kill me if she knew you were gonna take the floor. I'll be having the mattress."

"I'll explain to her that it's too much to ask and that I can't possibly expect you to give up your bed for me and she'll be fine with it."

"Fine, but you obviously don't know my mother if you think she's just gonna be fine with that arrangement."

They smiled at each other. The fact that Merlin had already made a bond with someone was heartwarming but unnerving because he knew that the friendship would be based on lies and he could never tell Ron who he truly was.

"Oh, by the way, my friend Harry will be joining us in a week or so, but don't worry he won't be staying in here with us. That would be much too crowded!" Ron explained.

"Okay cool, sounds good!"

"Once he gets here we'll have like four or five days 'til term starts so in that time its likely we'll be going shopping and getting everything ready." He told him. Merlin just nodded along.

Once Ron was finished explaining how the next couple of weeks would work, Merlin went and started to arrange things around his makeshift bed on the floor. He put the carved dragon made by his father before he died next to his pillow and the Pendragon's crested cape folded and under his pillow. Having something of Arthur's made him feel safer so he liked to know it was near him when he was sleeping.

He knew Ron was behind him, looking at what he was doing with peaked interest but he didn't care. If he was going to be staying here for over a week he wanted to feel comfortable.

Ron was about to ask him what the belongings he had with him were all about, but he realized he had only just met the guy and it might be quite personal. He figured it could wait until they were closer friends. Ron liked Mack, he seemed pretty cool. He thought they could be fast friends quite easily.

"While you unpack i'm gonna go down and see if there's any food on the table." Ron said.

"Kay, sounds good! I'll see you down there in a bit." Merlin replied from his spot on the floor. It was then that Merlin realized that it was actually quite late at night. Ron had gone to see if dinner was ready which made him notice the dark sky and the brightly shining moon and stars from outside the window.

* * *

Ron walked downstairs to find everyone sat around the dinner table awaiting their food. They were all avidly talking to each other about various different things, though the main topic of conversation seemed to be his new room mate Mack.

"Ah Ron, I was just about to call you down for dinner!" Molly said, spotting him at the doorway. Everyone turned in his direction making him feel rather uneasy.

"Well, what's he like?" Hermione asked him curiously.

"He's cool. We didn't get to talk much. We decided who was sleeping where and I told him the plan for the next week or so and then he started unpacking and I came down here to see if food was ready." Ron recited to the room.

Everyone seemed fairly bored with the lack of information that they had just received about the mysterious newcomer.

"I still don't really trust him." Hermione stated.

"What,why not?" Ron exclaimed, "I think he's a nice guy and he seems perfectly trustworthy to me."

"If that's what you think,Ron, then i'll believe you since you've spent the most amount of time with him." said Ginny, and everyone else nodded apart from Hermione who still looked to be in a giant thought process.

"Well maybe we can ask him a few questions about himself at dinner. Why don't you go and get him Ron, as dinner is ready anyway." Mrs Weasley said.

Ron nodded and headed back upstairs, a bit miffed that everyone seemed a bit on the fence about trusting his new roommate and friend.

When he got to his room he was slightly shocked to see how homely Mack had made the place. There were throws and pillows and artifacts and ornaments that just made the place feel very warm and friendly. What surprised him was the fact that he hadn't kept to his little area on the floor, he made the entire room feel nicer. Obviously Ron didn't care that he had put a nice quilt upon his bed or that picture frames had been hung on the walls. It made the place feel much more homely and nice. He couldn't believe that he had gotten all this out of his small rucksack.

Merlin turned around to find Ron staring in shock at the redecorated room and panicked slightly.

"I'm sorry, I went a bit overboard and got carried away. I'll take it all down if you want. It was stupid of me to redecorate _your_ room without asking you first." he rushed.

Ron chuckled at his awkwardness and rambling. "Don't apologize, I love it!"

"You do?" He asked uncertainly.

"Of course! It's amazing. It feels so much nicer and has such a great homely feel to it."

Merlin breathed a sigh of relief. "I'm glad you like it!" he smiled.

There was a moment silence when Ron was staring round the room in shock while Merlin admired his handiwork.

"Oh yeah," Ron remembered, "dinner's ready!"

"Okay great!" Merlin said enthusiastically.

"Just warning you now, 'cause you're new you might get bombarded with questions about yourself. If you start to feel at all overwhelmed or you don't want to answer a question because it's too personal just give a look or kick me under the table and i'll help you escape." Ron told him kindly. Truth be told, when Ron heard the comments about Mack coming from his family he knew they were going to ask him series after series of personal questions that he may or may not want to answer, this made him feel sorry for him already before the onslaught had even started so he felt it necessary to warn him.

"Thank you. I really appreciate all you're doing for me! I hope we can become really good friends in the close future" Merlin said, touched at the help Ron was willing to offer.

"No problem. My family can be quite a handful. And yeah I'd like that too." He replied with a smile.

They smiled at each other before walking out of their room and down to dinner.

 **A.N/ I know this was really out of character for Ron but I hope you liked it. Btw there isn't any slash between ron and merlin going on ;) Please review I love to hear from you how you think i'm doing and whether you like the story or not xx**


	12. The Fake Past Story

**a/n: Hey guys! I hope you're all enjoying the story! Remember, reviews make my day! xx**

* * *

As they sat down for dinner Merlin felt very uncomfortable at the fact that everyone was unashamedly glancing at him curiously. The first person to break the ice was Mrs Weasley.

"So, where did you grow up dear?" She asked kindly.

"I grew up with my mother in the North." he replied swiftly. Everyone kind of looked around as if they were expecting more of a detailed and interesting answer. Merlin was trying to keep it short and sweet to attempt to keep as much suspicion away as possible.

"What about your dad?" asked Ron curiously.

"Oh he had to leave before I was born so I was brought up by my mother. It was a tough life, we were very poor, but we got by."

This time it was Hermione's turn to question him. Her's was full of suspicion. "Why did he leave?"

"For work, mostly, and some personal issues I guess. He had to leave before he even found out my mother was pregnant so he went most of his life not knowing he had a son. I only met him for a couple of days before he died." Merlin said somberly. Suddenly, the mood in the room changed to a grave atmosphere.

"I'm so sorry Mack." Mr Weasley said in respect. Everyone nodded in agreement to let him know they were all sorry for his loss.

"It's okay. I mean I never really knew him so there's not much to get upset about."

"But still. He was your dad." Merlin just nodded.

"How did he die?" Ron asked suddenly, but not unkindly. He said it as a sort of after thought.

"Ronald!" Reprimanded Mrs Weasley.

"No no, it's alright." he looked around the table before telling the short tale.

"I went to try and find him at his work, which I found out was with dragons. I found him soon enough and we bonded but I hadn't yet told him who I really was. The next day when we were alone I told him who I was and we had a conversation about my mother and my uncle. But then a dragon escaped one of its cages." Merlin's voice began to shake.

"Mack, honey, you don't have to tell us." Mrs Weasley said comfortingly. He just shook his head in dismissal. He was only bending the truth, the pain of his father's death still remained.

"He went off to help deal with the dragon and I followed him thinking I could help in some way. The dragon came towards me and I tried using my magic but it wouldn't do anything against such a powerful creature. I began to feel helpless as the dragon threateningly stalked towards me. I closed my eyes in horror, not wanting to see myself be slashed apart by the beast. I heard it roar but my death never came. I opened my eyes to see my father stood in front of me holding a sword. He had killed the dragon in protecting me. I breathed a sigh of relief and thanks but then he turned round to face me. He had large claw marks down his torso that were seeping blood. He died protecting me and died in my arms. The last thing he told me was that he knew I'd make him proud. So that's why I came here. To learn better magic so I'm never as defenseless as I was that day. So I can protect my loved ones and do him proud."

Merlin had streams of tears running down his cheeks by this point. As did Mrs Weasley and Ginny and Hermione looked ashamed of herself for treating him so badly without having known anything about him. Ron and the rest of the guys looked at him in sorrow.

Mrs Weasley got up and gave him a large motherly hug, once he'd finished. "I'm so sorry you had to go through that!"

"Don't be, its not your fault. If you'll excuse me I'd quite like to go to my bed now." He said with a shaky voice. Everyone mumbled their obvious agreement so he got up and headed to his room.

* * *

"Wow. I think we can all agree that we weren't expecting that!" Mr Weasley said. They all nodded.

"From now on, I don't think we should judge him without getting to know him. I think we pressured him into telling us that story. So none of you are allowed to ask him questions that are too personal. Okay?" Mrs Weasley reprimanded.

"I'm gonna go and see if he's alright." Ron said before following Merlin up to their room.

"Ron and him are obviously becoming close friends, so I don't think we should say anything about Mack with Ron in the room in case he tells Mack or becomes defensive of him." Hermione stated.

"I agree. But I don't think that there's anything suspicious about Mack anymore. He told us an incredibly personal story which must have been hard for him since we're all practically still strangers. I think he's trustworthy." Mrs Weasley defended.

Hermione still looked uneasy.

* * *

Ron softly knocked on the bedroom door before walking in. He saw Merlin lying on his side facing away from the door, fiddling with a carved wooden dragon. He still had tear streaks running down his face.

"Hey mate, you okay? I'm sorry about downstairs, I shouldn't have asked what I did. I should've known it was too personal and i'm sorry." Ron apologized.

During Ron's small speech Merlin had turned himself over to face him.

"Don't be silly Ron, I get it. None of you trust me yet so you just wanted to ask me questions about myself in order to figure me out." Merlin said sadly. He should've realized no one would trust him straight away.

Ron manically shook his head. "That's ridiculous! I trust you, or I wouldn't have come up here to check on you and I would've been more hesitant about having you stay in my room! Maybe some of the others find your arrival slightly odd considering the timing but who cares about them? They'll get over it eventually. And since you have me, it doesn't matter about anyone else 'cause I'll defend you form whatever they say!"

Merlin smiled lightly. "Thank you Ron. It means a lot. I'm really glad to have a friend like you." Inside it made him extremely sad to know that he couldn't tell Ron, his first good friend here, who he really was."

They smiled at each other before it became slightly awkward and Ron went to sit down on his bed.

"Do you mind if I ask about the little dragon next to your bed?"

"Oh no, not at all. My dad made it for me the day before he died. It's the only thing of his that I have."

"It's really stunning. He was very talented." Ron said in an attempt to comfort.

"Thank you, and yeah he was."

There was a moment silence while both were wrapped up in their own thoughts.

"Mack, I'm really sorry about your dad." Ron said, beginning to feel slightly emotional. He couldn't imagine how it felt to have your dad die in your arms after only knowing him for a few days. It made him really upset.

"It's okay. It wasn't your fault. You have nothing to be sorry for."

"I'm sorry that you had to go through that!"

"It's alright. It happened quite a long time ago. I've let it go. Obviously, I still miss him and it makes me sad to know I'll never get to see him again. But I'm over what happened. No one was to blame but myself."

"It wasn't your fault, mate. Don't think like that!"

Merlin just smiled sadly at him. "I'm going to get ready for bed I think. It's been a long day."

"Yeah, course."

* * *

"Harry's coming in like a week, guys." Hermione said.

"Yup, what do you think he'll make of Mack?" George asked.

"I dunno. I think he'll be really suspicious of him. I mean, especially since he arrived out of the blue so close after what happened with Voldemort last year."

They nodded.

"But Harry's friendly, so he'll make it work and unless he finds a reason not to trust Mack, he'll be friendly with him I'm sure."

"True."

* * *

Ron came back downstairs to say goodnight to everyone. Even though it wasn't very late, he thought he'd join Mack in getting an early night. Everyone had left the table and were dispersed throughout the rooms.

His mom saw him first.

"Ron, how is he?" she asked in concern.

"Yeah, he's okay. He knows that people don't trust him, which obviously is making him feel excluded but he's alright."

By this time everyone had gathered in the lounge and was staring at Ron.

"Everyone should feel ashamed of themselves," Mrs Weasley scolded, "its not his fault that he's been through a rough time and this is the time that he's come here. He probably doesn't even know what has happened at Hogwarts over the last year. We can't judge him for when he's arrived. We need to make him feel welcome."

Ron was glaring at Hermione.

"Why are you glaring at me?" she asked.

"Because you have been the least accepting in his arrival. Constantly treating him like some sort of suspect and with your utmost suspicion. He hasn't done anything wrong! Just let him be! I don't know who you think he is, but he's not working for 'he who must not be named' or anything like that, so just leave him alone!" Ron exclaimed.

Hermione didn't say anything but she glared at the floor but also looked ashamed of herself. In her head she knew he hadn't done anything wrong and that he was obviously too nice to be working for anyone evil. She just couldn't help but be suspicious after everything that had happened.

"Right, well I'm going to bed and so is Mack. He's had a very long day and I'm tired. So goodnight."

"Goodnight." Everyone said after him.

* * *

Once he'd gone upstairs everyone turned to each other.

"I told you he'd be defensive. But he's right." Mrs Weasley said. "We shouldn't have been so harsh and distant towards him. And now he doesn't feel welcome here at all. The next time you see him I want you all to be warm, and kind, and welcoming towards him."

Everyone looked very apologetic and agreed to be friendlier to the new guy.

 **A/N: who do you think should find out about Merlin first? Ron, Hermione, Harry, Snape, Dumbledore or someone else? Please review who you think it should be!**

 **Fandomlover xx**


	13. The Morning Story

**_A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviewed, I love you all! So far the ideas of who should find out about Merlin first goes as follows:_**

 ** _Snape-4_**

 ** _Ron-3_**

 _ **Hermione-1**_

 ** _Dumbledore-1_**

 ** _Harry-1_**

 ** _Luna-1_**

 ** _Hope you enjoy the chapter, and please keep reviewing who you think it should be! xx_**

When Ron walked back into their bedroom, the first thing he noticed was that Mack was fast asleep and definitely dreaming about something. He was incoherently mumbling to himself and Ron could only make out certain words such as "Freya", "'Gana", "Gwen", "Lance" and a few others but those were the most spoken names. Ron had no idea what those names meant to Mack but it couldn't have been good because he seemed to keep saying "sorry". Ron couldn't imagine what he could be dreaming about for him to be saying these things but something told him he wasn't just dreaming, he was envisioning the past. He would be sure to ask him about those names in the morning but for now he wouldn't worry about it too much and would just head to sleep.

* * *

It was around three a.m when Ron awoke to something. It took him a moment to comprehend what was happening but as soon as he did he shot up out of his bed and crawled over to where Mack was 'asleep' on the floor. He was moaning in pain in his sleep, tears were pouring down his face and he kept shouting "sorry". That wasn't all though, objects were flying around the room frantically, Ron had never seen anything like it. Normally, only children could do this sort of wandless magic. The sort where the magic is released due to emotional turmoil. Young children can usually only do it because that is the time where the magic manifests in their core. The only person Ron knew who was able of doing wandless magic was Dumbledore. But he didn't even think that he had the power to do what Mack was doing at that very moment in time. It was purely his magic reacting to his emotions. Wandless magic usually takes many years to master and only the most powerful are able of accomplishing it. He couldn't believe that a fifteen year old boy was completing such feats.

He began to attempt waking him up, which turned out to be quite a mission. He was shaking him and calling his name to him but it just seemed to make things worse. The objects flying increased their speed and gained a sense of urgency and Mack's crying and shaking increased. Ron knew he needed a new tactic. He crawled out of his room making sure to not let anything escape and went downstairs as quickly and quietly as he could. He grabbed a glass and filled it with cold water before retracing his steps back up to Mack in his room. Carefully stepping into his room he nearly got his in the face by a crazed lamp! he slid to the safety of the floor and crawled over to Mack.

He said a quick but sincere apology before tipping the contents of the glass onto Mack's face.

He sat bolt upright in shock and all the objects that were flying stopped and fell to the ground. He looked at Ron's concerned face in confusion.

"What's going on?" He asked.

"Well, you were having what seemed to be an awful nightmare which was causing everything in my room to fly around manically. So obviously, I tried to wake you up but nothing was working so I did the first thing that popped into mind which was water. Sorry about that."

"Don't apologize! Thanks for waking me and I'm sorry about the state of your room." He apologized sincerely. "I can get it back to normal if you want. I'm never technically been to Hogwarts so the underage magic rule doesn't apply to me yet because I haven't been told about it."

Ron laughed at his friends logic before nodding.

Merlin took out his wand and waved it around a bit causing all the objects to go back to their original places and within a few seconds the room was back to normal, if not better than before!

"Wow thanks! You're gonna have to teach me that!" Ron said in excited awe.

"Aha, sure! Listen, I'm really sorry about waking you up to all that chaos. You're probably really tired, looking outside it looks really early in the morning, so you should go back to sleep. I'm going to go downstairs and do little house chores and maybe have a nap on the couch if I feel up to it."

"I'm not tired. Don't apologize, it's not your fault, and I mean, as long as you're okay! Instead of that idea you should stay up here and we should just talk. Man to man. I kinda want to find out more about you, especially since we're sharing a room and we're friends. I practically know nothing about you!"

"Hmm, I dunno Ron. I don't think you want to know about me. I'm not very interesting."

"I find that hard to believe! Someone who has never gone to school and has lived at such a life as you have, can't not be incredibly interesting!"

Eventually giving in Merlin says, "Okay fine, but I'm not gonna do all the talking!"

Ron nodded in excited agreement and they sat opposite each other on Ron's bed.

* * *

They'd been talking non-stop for hours. Not about anything specific really, mainly just small talk like hobbies, dislikes, any gossip and due to many questions from Merlin, Ron talked a lot about things that went on in Hogwarts. They were both having a lot of fun and lots of laughter was shared.

What Ron said to him next made him begin to feel very anxious as to where the conversation would lead them.

"So tell me about your family."

"Uhhh, why?" he asked with a nervous chuckle.

"Well I've talked a lot about my life and my family so I think it's your turn now." He replied as if it were obvious.

"Right, of course. Well, what do you want to know?"

"I dunno. Anything and everything. Just tell me about yourself."

He gulped nervously, "Okay, well as you know I grew up in the North with my mother and we were very poor, living in a one bedroom house. It was in a very small village and the only work anyone had to do was farming so that's how I spent my childhood. I would go out and help the older men on the farms as much as I could and my mother would be inside the house baking and cooking things which she could then sell to bring in extra money for us. It was a pretty bland and sad childhood looking back on it, but I didn't know any different. So then I went off to find my father and yeah, you know that story. So obviously afterwards I had to go home and tell my mother all that had occurred as she would be able to tell from my face that something was wrong. Once I'd told her, as you can imagine she was absolutely heartbroken and cried herself to sleep as I cried with her and held her until she did so. It was after that moment that her health began deteriorating. It broke my heart to watch as she got worse and worse knowing that it was all caused by the pain she felt from my father's death. But as you can imagine, there's no medicine to cure heartbreak. It was a few months later when everything got too much and she passed away," now Merlin allowed himself to shed a few tears for his mother who he still missed dearly, Ron was looking very sorrowful and seriously regretted asking him about his life.

"Mack, you don't have to tell me anything."

"No, no, its fine! So after she died I had to go and live with my uncle in the nearest city and I worked under him as his apprentice being a doctor type person really, which is why I might be good at herbology and potions but bad at everything else." He said jokingly, "But he was much older than my mother and after a few years he died from old age which is why I'm here now. He wanted me to get a proper professional education in magic."

Ron was incredibly moved by the whole story. He didn't realize what an interesting yet devastating life his friend had had in the past.

"Wow," was all he could say and Mack just nodded.

"So yeah pretty much sums up my life." Mack said solemnly.

There was a pondering silence before Ron said, "So it's already getting pretty late in the morning, do you want to get up or go back to sleep?"

"I think I'll get up now thanks. You feel free to get some more sleep because I feel really bad that I woke you up so early and you've been up this long for my benefit." Merlin said gratefully.

"No i'm proper awake now! Let's get up and go downstairs, yeah?"

"Yeah sounds good."

They spent around 10 minutes washing and getting dressed between them before they were ready to head downstairs. Due to the earliness of the hour, unsurprisingly they were the first ones up and about.

"Since we are the first ones up, I thought it might be a nice idea if I made breakfast for everyone on my first morning here, just to say a kind of thank you for letting me stay in your home." Merlin suggested with a smile.

"That's a really nice thought Mack, but you don't have to. Honestly, we're glad you're here you don't have to do anything to say thank you! Anyway my mum always makes us breakfast so you should just sit back and put your feet up."

"I know I don't have to but I want to."

"If you insist. But not on your own. I'll help too!" Ron announced.

"Ahaha okay if you want to. What does everyone like that's not as simple as toast but not too complicated that it will take hours to make."

"Hmm, well we could make a little buffet of breakfasty things. That way people can pick and choose what they want to eat. I think pancakes, bacon, sausages, eggs, toast, hash browns and then we can also put cereal out as well if anyone wants that."

"Great idea! Okay let's get started. I don't know where you keep everything so maybe if you get me the ingredients I'll make and cook everything."

"Sure! What do you want first?"

"Could you grab me some eggs and sausages please."

* * *

They spent the next hour or so cooking pretty much everything to do with breakfast they could think of. They had everything necessary for a delicious Full English Breakfast, they had pancakes with all sorts of different toppings, they had toast, they had fruit and they had cereal. They were just starting to plate everything up and start putting everything nicely on the table when they heard the first signs of someone upstairs waking up.

The floorboards started creaking and they heard the shower turn on. This started a domino effect and it didn't take long for everyone to be up and moving around upstairs.

Someone started coming downstairs about ten minutes later. It was Mrs Weasley, no doubt coming downstairs to make a start on breakfast.

When she came down she got a massive shock. Everything for breakfast was ready and made and laid out on the table beautifully in perfect arrangement.

She looked up from the table to see two very proud looking boys looking happily at her.

"Did you boys do all this?" She asked in disbelief.

"Well actually its was all Mack's idea and Mack did all the work." Ron said.

"Don't be ridiculous Ron, we did it together!"

"You boys are the best! I can't believe you did all this."

"I just wanted to say thank you for letting me stay here until school starts and welcoming me into your home. It means a lot." Merlin explained.

"Oh don't be silly, we're happy to help!"

"I still wanted to do something nice for everyone. I figured this was a start in the right direction and the least I could do for you guys."

"You honestly didn't have to Mack, but I'm very grateful." Merlin just smiled at her.

Suddenly, Mrs Weasley yelled at the top of her voice up the stairs, "Breakfast is ready!"

Ron and Merlin flinched at the volume of her voice. "Ahaha sorry about that. Don't want anything to get cold." She said to them.

It didn't take long for everyone to have gotten dressed and dragged themselves downstairs.

Once everyone had sat down around the table Mrs Weasley said, "Dig in everyone. This is courtesy of Mack!"

"Thank you Mack." They all said in unison.

He nodded at them shyly, still not feeling totally welcome in their close-knitted family.

They all tucked in and started picking all sorts of different foods off the table and onto their plates. The Weasleys were like absolute savages. Mack found it satisfyingly entertaining to just watch them all go at each other's throats in order to get what they wanted from the selection of delicious food.

* * *

"Breakfast was absolutely delicious, thank you Mack!" Mrs Weasley said kindly.

"You're very welcome, Mrs Weasley. I'm glad you enjoyed it!"

"I hope you do feel welcome here because you are and we all are happy to have you."

"Thank you, I really appreciate it!"

"What would you like to do today? I was thinking in order to help you bond with the family some more, all the kids could have a nice friendly game of Quidditch in the field out back?" she suggested.

"That sounds fun! But I had a bit of a sheltered childhood and I've never properly played Quidditch so probably won't be very good at it." He said in embarrassment. Sure he'd played Quidditch before! He was around when the game was invented for crying out loud! But Mrs Weasley didn't know that and she thought he grew up in a little village away from normal life as a child wizard. In her eyes there was no reason for him to have ever played the game before.

"Oh of course, I didn't think of that! Do you want to do something different today then?" She asked kindly.

"No don't worry about it! I'd love to give it a try, it sounds like a fun game but someone will have to tell me how to play!"

"Yeah that's alright, Ron will happily do that!"

"Okay thanks, I'll go get ready." And he headed upstairs.

He walked into their room and told Ron the plan of the day.

"Is it okay if you explain how to play the game to me because I don't really know how it's done."

"Yeah of course! Basically you just fly around on a broomstick and you have like 4 different balls that you have to use to score points. The first one is called the Quaffle This is the biggest and the chasers have to try and get it for themselves and throw it threw one of three hoops. Each goal they get scores 10 points."

He went on and on about the sport that he obviously loved for a good twenty minutes.

"So yeah, that's basically it." He finished.

"That's it?!" He exclaimed in shock.

Ron laughed at the look on his face. The sport was apparently more complicated than he originally thought it was. There was a lot of things to take in.

"Did you understand any of what I just told you?" Ron asked him.

"Most of it I think. I think I got the basics of the game."

"Good good. Let's get going then!" And they went back downstairs to go and play.

* * *

"Right guys, listen up!" Mrs Weasley said to all the kids, "I've asked Mack if today he wants to play Quidditch with you all in order to bond more, so you all need to be really nice today and make him feel welcome here. All of you go and get ready to play and make sure to grab an extra broomstick for him. He said he doesn't know how to play but Ron's explaining it to him so he should be alright."

They all nodded in confirmation before going to get all their stuff together.

* * *

"And go!" Fred yelled and suddenly the game was in full swing.

They had split into two teams consisting of Fred, George and Ginny versus Ron, Merlin and even Hermione had joined the game to make the numbers even. Despite her always reprimanding Harry and Ron about spending too much time playing Quidditch and not enough on the education, she did also enjoy playing the game.

Merlin had been chosen as a chaser along with Hermione (a strategic play by Ron to make Hermione see that she should loosen up about Mack and give him a chance) and Ron was keeper. There were no beaters or seekers because they didn't want to scare Mack and wanted to take it easy on him. They also only had one Quaffle to play with so could only use that.

The game was going alright, Merlin was hovering in the air worried to join in for fear of being found out. Hermione was holding her own pretty well and Ron was doing extraordinarily well as Keeper. He should definitely try out for the team.

All of a sudden, Hermione whizzed past him and yelled his name for help. He flew to her aid. She chucked him the Quaffle and he zoomed towards the hoops at the other end of the garden. Most of them stopped and stared in shock at him dodging and avoiding everyone else with ease as he got closer to the goals. He launched the Quaffle at one of the hoops and hoped for the best. George narrowly missed the ball as it entered the goal. Everyone hovered in midair in shock at his obvious skill at the game. Then they clapped and all of them were then cheering him! He smiled shyly.

Suddenly, his broom began to shake. He could feel the magic inside the stick building uncontrollably. He had a flashback.

 _It was about 1000 years ago and the broomstick had not long been invented and Merlin was going to be one of the few to be able to try them. He sat on it and rose to the air. He hovered for a few seconds before he could feel a magical tension in the broom. He quickly got worried and was beginning to descend from around 30 feet in the air when the wood of the stick exploded in a magical expulsion. He was unconscious for around 3 days. It wasn't good!_

He panicked at the memory, having completely forgotten about that event he thought he'd be fine. But obviously not, the same fate that he had gone through on that day awaited him now. He couldn't afford for this to unveil him. He looked in panicked horror at Ron who looked at him in a caring confusion. That was when everything went black.

Everyone screamed as they all watched in horror when Mack's broomstick shattered into a million pieces of sharp splintered wood. Ron zoomed into action when he realized his friend was falling to his potential death. He caught him just before he hit the ground and lowered him onto the ground. This caused a reaction in everyone else who all quickly descended to the floor to check on the poor guy.

"MOM!" Ron yelled into the house. "Ginny, go get mom!" She didn't hesitate and ran off.

It wasn't long before Mrs Weasley came rushing out to see what the matter was. She gasped in shock when she saw the state that Mack was in.

"Quickly! Get him inside!"


	14. The Injury Story

**_A.N: I'm still on the fence about who should find out first so please keep reviewing your thoughts! Hope you're enjoying the story. x_**

"Put him down over there!" Mrs Weasley shouted while pointing at space on the floor covered with a blanket and a pillow. They gently put him down and waited eagerly, like lost puppies, for the their next instructions. "Now tell me exactly what happened." She ordered.

"His broom started shaking hard, for no reason that I can think of. He looked at me in horror, as though the thought of something awful had just struck him. That was when it exploded. Just went up in a million little pieces of wood. He started falling so I caught him and then we called for you." Ron rushed in a panicked voice, deeply concerned for his friend.

"I've never heard anything like that before! That's incredibly strange." Mrs Weasley stated in shock.

She waved her wand over him, gasped; and that was when Mack began to glow a bright gold shimmer engulfed his body. Everyone surrounding gazed on in awe and wonder at what they were seeing! In the gold shimmer was all of the small splinters of wood that had previously been in his body, they were removing themselves!

Suddenly, Mack gave a large gasp and sat bolt upright.

"Oh my goodness Mack, are you alright?"

"What happened?" He asked groggily.

"Well, we were having a game of quidditch and all of a sudden your broom exploded and you fell through the air and I caught you before you hit the ground!" Ron exclaimed loudly and very rushed.

"Oh, sorry about that everyone. Sorry about scaring you I'm fine now though." he insisted. He attempted to get up before wincing in pain and having to lie back down again.

"Don't be ridiculous. You are to stay lying down and we'll take you to St Mungo's."

That thought gave Merlin heart palpitations! If they took him to a hospital they'd realize who he is. They wouldn't have any records of him there but there would be records of names he'd used in the past dating back to hundreds of years ago.

"No no no, that's really not necessary! I'm absolutely fine. If everyone would just stop worrying over me then I'll be much better much quicker." He gave Ron a pleading look that said 'please get everyone out of here' and Ron knew exactly what to do.

"Okay everybody, let's just give the guy some space. I know we all had quite a shock but the splinters removed themselves so all he needs now is rest." Ron said in an assertive tone that surprised everyone. No one looked particularly pleased about it but they knew he was right. However, Ron also knew that the house wasn't big enough for him to be able o tell everyone to clear out and them be able to do it so he went for a different strategy.

"Come on Mack, let's see if you can drag yourself upstairs to our room." He said while putting his arm under Merlin's shoulders to support him and helping him to his feet. They slowly but surely walked up the stairs and to their room away from prying eyes and ears.

"Thanks Ron, you're a good friend." Merlin said with gratitude.

"No worries mate, but what was all that about downstairs? I mean, that was one of the strangest but coolest things I've ever seen! You were unconscious and yet your body was glowing gold and healing yourself while you were asleep! What was all that about?" He asked in amazement.

Merlin knew that at some point he'd have to tell people his secret, he just didn't think it would be so soon. He didn't think he was ready for people to know. Although Ron was the first and best friend he'd made here he still needed a bit more time before he was ready to tell anyone, even him.

"I honestly don't know. Wait, did you say I was glowing?" He asked. "Well for some unknown reason when i'm ill or hurt my body glows and gets rid of the virus or injury for me. I've never really thought it was weird. I was home-schooled I just assumed that's what everyone's body did when they were sick. Like a defense mechanism." He felt bad for lying but knew it was for the best. Besides, when he was ready to tell people he was certain that it will be Ron that he tells first.

"Really? That's so cool! I wish my body did that. Then I'd never be sick or injured that must be so good! I wonder why your body does it and no one else's." He shrugged. "You're definitely one of the weirdest and coolest people I've ever met; and my best friend is Harry freaking Potter!" he exclaimed.

"I'm honored?" Merlin said confused. He really didn't want people treating him differently for any sort of reason. If this was Ron's reaction to him glowing he dreaded to think how he'll react when he finds out who he really is. But he didn't want to think about that right now. He just wanted to enjoy the moment while everyone just thought he was a fairly normal wizard.

He and Ron continued chatting into the night and only stopped when it was dinner time and Ron had to go downstairs, collect Mack's dinner and bring it back up to him so they could eat together. They really enjoyed each others company and got along well which they both appreciated considering the world they were living in at the moment.

While they were talking, Merlin became very somber when he realized that he was constantly lying to basically his only friend and that their relationship would most likely completely change when Ron found out who he really is. He hated lying, but lying to his friends was the worst thing in the world, he knew from a lot of experience.

He also knew that Harry would be arriving in a few days and he would either become fast friends, like he did with Ron. Or Harry would not trust him at all and he would become an outsider as Ron wouldn't be able to spend as much time with him because his relationship with Harry is much more important than a friendship of just a few days. He just had to enjoy the time he had with Ron and make the most of it. It was likely that even if Harry trusted him, that Hermione would turn him against that because she didn't trust him at all and she wasn't even subtle about it. He hoped that given time, they could all come to be friends and they would trust him as much as Ron hopefully does.


	15. The Harry's Arrival Story

"Harry!" Ginny yelled in excitement as she and everyone rushed to greet Harry as he entered the house.  
"Hey guys." He replied with very little enthusiasm.

"What's wrong?" Several people asked at once.

"Nothing, I just want to be done with this whole trial situation. I'm sick of it! I didn't do anything wrong unless the ministry would've preferred I die, which to be honest is probably not far from the truth!"

"Don't be ridiculous. They don't want you dead, you're gonna be their saviours whether they know it yet or not!" Ron said encouragingly.

"Thanks Ron, doesn't feel that way at the moment though. I just want it to be over and the Ministry to leave me alone."

They all went quiet as no one really knew how to reply to that.

After a few moments of awkward silence Mrs Weasley spoke up, "Well dear, you'll be staying in Ron's room. I'll leave you two to get aquainted!"

"Come on, there's someone I want you to meet!" Ron said excitedly, leading the way to his room. 

* * *

Merlin hadn't wanted to overcrowd Harry as soon as he arrived since he was going to have all his familiar faces surrounding him he didn't need any new ones! He decided to stay in his room so he could introduce himself later on in a more relaxed setting.  
He heard the arrival with everyone's voices filled with excitement. He felt sorry for the boy when he started saying about his queries but knew he'd have to get used to it and he'd overcome it in the end. He then heard footsteps and Ron and Harry's voices  
coming closer to their room.  
The door opened with Harry I front turning back to Ron in mid-conversation, failing to straight away notice Merlin sat in the corner on his bed reading. Then he turned around.  
He voice became still aswell as his body. It was as if he was going into battle mode and Merlin could practically see his defences rising around him.  
"Ron. Why is there a stranger in your bedroom?" Harry said full of suspicion.  
"Harry this is..."  
"Hi I'm Mack," Merlin interrupted, deciding it would be best if he introduced himself, "you must be Harry, I've heard lots of great things about you!"  
"Don't believe everything you hear." He replied still not trusting the new guy.  
Merlin stretched out his hand as a friendly gesture which Harry hesitantly returned.  
"Great! Now that we're all meeted and greeted, Harry you can unpack your bags on that bed over there!" Ron said while pointing to a bed which had newly been added to the small room, making the crowding worse but almost more comfy.  
Merlin got the feeling Harry didn't trust him but hoped that he'd soon forget that and get to know him and they'd become friends as it'd be hard to protect someone that is constantly wary of you!  
There was a knock at the door and Hermione came in.  
"Hey guys, was just wandering how you're doing?"  
"Good! We're all introduced and ready for some food!" Ron said energetically. They all chuckled at his obvious love of food.  
"Yeah you're mums cooking up some lunch so you don't have to wait much longer." Hermione said with a smirk.  
"I'm just going to go to the loo and then I'll go downstairs and leave you guys to catch up for a bit!" Merlin said kindly while standing up and leaving the room.

* * *

When outside, Merlin cast a spell so he could hear what the three were saying. He knew it was wrong to eavesdrop but he needed to know Harry and Hermione's opinions before deciding how to continue.  
He then headed to the bathroom so no one would find him lurking outside the bedroom.  
"So how long's the new guy been here?" Harry asked.  
"Just under a week." Ron replied.  
"What's he like?"  
"He's cool! He's had a rough time recently but he's pretty chill and is a great friend to have a laugh with!" Merlin smiled as Ron backed him up.  
"Yeah he seems really nice. I always get the feeling he's hiding something though. He always seems pretty secretive and I'm not sure I believe everything he says. And some thugs he does are really odd and suspicious!" Hermione added her views.  
"Like what?" Harry asked.  
"His broom exploded during a game of Quidditch and his body healed itself but glowing and removing the damage on its own!" Merlin cringed as he realised how odd that must've been to witness and his story for it wasn't the best either. He could practically  
hear Harry's disbelief.  
"Guess we'll just have to keep an eye on him. His appearance seems to coincidental in the whole Voldemort returning scheme of things!"  
"Don't be ridiculous! He's not got anything remotely to do with him! He's a good person who doesn't deserve is spying on him!"  
"Alright Ron, we'll leave him be and trust him as long as nothing suspicious happens again!" Hermione concluded.  
Merlin breathed a sigh of relief. He knew Hermione was too clever and intuitive for her own good. At least they were going to try to trust him. He just had to make sure not to put another foot out of line and act as normal as you possibly can in situations  
like these. He couldn't wait to get to Hogwarts where he could be on his own without everyone watching his every move and he could get some time to himself.


End file.
